Mobility in the field: Welcome to the new frontier of opportunity

With all of the buzz surrounding mobility and connectivity in the tech world, it’s no surprise the construction industry is looking for ways to capitalize on these emerging technologies.

Today we are seeing more and more mobile devices on jobsites. Superintendents are swapping out clipboards for smart phones and tablets.

For the most part, staying connected to other project team members by email on 3G or 4G enabled devices has become the standard. But what types of challenges are you experiencing in this new frontier of the mobile workspace?

Last week I was in Manhattan attending Wall St Journal’s “All Things D: Dive into Mobile” conference. Executives from today’s leading technology firms like Google, Microsoft, and Facebook spoke about the future of mobility. They talked about how their solutions were creating new ways for people to connect and share information. As I listened to each one talk about the challenges they experience today and the challenges they anticipate in the future, I thought about the challenges you face in adapting to this new reality.

When it comes to facilitating a successful project, it oftentimes relies on effective communication, easy access to pertinent information and timeliness in getting that information distributed across groups. That is not an easy task when it comes to applying those same objectives to a complex network of players in a variety of environments. So what would you say are your biggest challenges? Is it hardware limitations, managing BYOD, and connectivity? I’m curious to know what you’re experiencing in this move the new frontier of mobility.

As Vice President of Strategic Development at Bluebeam, Inc., Sasha Reed collaborates with leaders in the architecture, engineering and construction industry to guide Bluebeam’s technology, partnerships and long-term goals. She joined Bluebeam in 2007 and co-created the Concierge Approach, a distinctly branded process of customer engagement, product feedback and solution delivery to which much of Bluebeam’s success is attributed, and which today is replicated at every organizational level.

Sasha is known industry-wide as a “conversation facilitator,” creating platforms for exchanges necessary to digitally advance the industry, including the BD+C Magazine Digital COM Blog, which she authors and manages. She’s been a featured presenter at numerous national and international conferences, including the 2014 Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA), Federal Project Delivery Symposium and NTI Danish BIM Conference. Sasha also co-chairs the Construction PDF Coalition, a grassroots effort to provide a common industry framework from which to create and maintain construction PDF documents, serves on the City College of San Francisco BIM Industry Council, and is Advisor to the Board of Direction for the National Institute of Building Sciences BuildingSMART Alliance.